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Spring Has Sprung

Springtime! Really? As I sit here and write this there is sleet falling! The Icebreaker is in the books and we look ahead to the Sizzler. The calendar does say spring. Do you know what I like best about springtime? The noise! Whether it be the birds singing or the Modifieds humming, springtime is a wonderful time for renewal and rebirth. Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Look around, life abounds, waking up from its sleeping slumber. We see the hope of life in those things we thought were dead; springtime.

We hear it at the track, the smell of rubber and racing fuel, yes spring has sprung. The cars and their new paint schemes; the drivers and their new suits, the new teams, the old teams, everything seems fresh and new in springtime. What have you seen new this year? What does it bring to mind?

Springtime reminds me of the new life I received in Christ, once dead with sin, now alive through Him. The spring of living water has renewed my hope and given me life.

One of the difficulties with this new life is living like we have really have been given a new start. We somehow don’t believe that God meant what he said. If we did we would live differently. In a song Steven Curtis Chapman sings he says, “This is life I’ve been given. I was a dead man who has been called out of the grave. Wake the neighbors, make some noise!”

You know what’s neat about a spring morning, the noise! You’ve heard it, birds singing, the world waking up, and life anew. Have you been given a new lease on life?

EPHESIANS 4:17-24, NLT; With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.

But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ. Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness–righteous, holy, and true.

Think of the comparisons found in these verses. Hopelessly confused, closed minds, full of darkness, hardened hearts, don’t care about right or wrong, surrendered to immoral ways, full of all kinds of impurity and greed. They describe a life without Christ. Throw that away: It’s rotten through and through, full of lusts and deceptions.

Put on a new Spirit; renew your thoughts and attitudes;

Phil. 2:5-8, Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.

Our new self is a not one of demanding our rights, but one of a humble servant, obedient to God’s direction and will for our lives.

Listen to the contrast in Galatians 5:19-23;When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, we will produce this kind of charecter: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.

I encourage you to make some noise, sing a new song, this is life we have been given, and we have been called out of the grave.

Demonstrate it in the way we live:

Not demanding rights, but humble, with a servants heart, obedient to God’s will.